


childofgod liked your photo

by clearlykero



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Gen, Social Media
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-31
Updated: 2016-12-31
Packaged: 2018-09-13 19:02:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9137299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clearlykero/pseuds/clearlykero
Summary: Tezuka gets Instagram for food photos, and somehow also gets Yukimura Seiichi.





	

**Author's Note:**

> written (and drawn) for Xmas Ouji 2016, for levyrasputin.

The thing about Germany is that it gets lonely, sometimes, and Tezuka thinks he is fine by himself because he doesn’t really want to bother his friends but no man is an island, et cetera, et cetera. There is tennis, of course; there is always tennis, but even Tezuka can’t play tennis all day. So eventually, he gives in.

 _I got Instagram_ , he sends to Ryoma on LINE.

(Face With Tears Of Joy )(Face With Tears Of Joy )(Face With Tears Of Joy )(Face With Tears Of Joy ), Ryoma replies immediately. Tezuka swipes his screen to look at his clock app. It reads 9 PM in Germany, 5 AM in Japan, which means Ryoma is awake when he shouldn’t be. Tezuka thinks about saying something, but he isn’t Ryoma’s mother. He puts the phone down and goes to bed early.

He wakes up to a call from Fuji.

“Why didn’t you post any photos?” asks Fuji.

“Do you know what time it is?” Tezuka asks in return. It’s a stupid question. Fuji always knows exactly when he’s bothering Tezuka.

“I’ll be waiting!” says Fuji, and hangs up. Belatedly, it occurs to Tezuka to wonder how Fuji found his Instagram. But his handle isn’t creative, and anyway Fuji has Inui, who makes it his business to know everything the ex-Seigaku members do. He sighs. He might as well get out of bed.

These days, when Tezuka isn’t on the tennis courts, he’s in the kitchen instead. Living by himself has, out of necessity, made him into a decent cook, and after he’s gotten over the first dozen failures he discovers he quite enjoys cooking. There’s little else to do for him in the city that doesn’t require better language skills, and while his German has improved a great deal it’s still not good enough to follow fast conversation.

When he’s making lunch, he remembers Fuji’s call, and he _does not_ want another one at the same unholy hour of night. So he posts a picture of his finished dish.

As soon as he’s posted it, his phone starts to buzz with notifications, and he has to text Oishi to find out how to turn them off, because he knows everyone else will probably laugh at him before helping him. He should really text Oishi first all the time— it’s only that Oishi tends to nag.

He goes for a run, goes to practice, comes back, reads for a bit, and then he finally picks up his phone to look at the comments. They are almost all from fans of his, saying how good it looks, or from friends expressing varying degrees of surprise that he’s remembered to eat lunch at all. Tezuka finds this distinctly unfair; he eats very regularly nowadays.

Then, he sees a comment that reads, _Did you make this?_ The username is ‘childofgod’. There’s only one person with the arrogance to actually use a nickname like that, and Tezuka isn’t at all close to him.

 _I did_ , he replies, before he can think about it. He doesn’t answer anyone else.

In the morning, Yukimura has replied: _I like to cook, too._

 

*

 

Tezuka’s Instagram fills with pictures of food, both from his own kitchen and from restaurants he eats at when he’s too tired to cook. Oishi nags less now that he can see for himself that Tezuka is eating, and Fuji starts sending him recipes instead of weird factoids from the Internet. But Tezuka isn’t going to make fried pickles or boiled goat liver, so Fuji’s recipes are not actually useful. (Maybe he will make something for Fuji when— if— he goes back to Japan.)

Yukimura, however, posts links in his comment section from time to time, and these Tezuka does use. Most of them turn out well, but when he attempts to make the stuffed squid he hits an obstacle.

 _How do you make squid not rubbery_ , he asks Kawamura, at his wit’s end.

 _But I mostly work with raw squid_ is Kawamura’s unhelpful reply, then he sends a Youtube link to a [Korean chef preparing squid](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DLFlzbfnmsas&t=ZTMzMWYyZDdlYzJiNjNiMDYyMTI1ZTMwNmIyOTIxZTViYjU5YzJjYyxsM2YwTTRxbA%3D%3D&b=t%3ARLxquUi7RstWUI8R_XF8rA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fxmasouji.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F155202701528%2Fchildofgod-liked-your-photo&m=1), so that’s alright. Tezuka watches the video, experiences a flash of inspiration, and goes to borrow his landlady’s grill.

Mrs. Otto is very good about encouraging Tezuka’s cooking hobby; this time she teaches him how to make a wickedly spicy green chilli sauce that isn’t in the recipe. Tezuka’s mouth is on fire after he taste-tests, but it’s delicious.

This one gets many more likes and comments than he is used to— Tezuka suspects it is because he’s mentioned Yukimura. Unlike Tezuka, Yukimura is fairly prominent on social media, and the people who call themselves his fans are also that much more numerous.

But Yukimura himself does not comment, and Tezuka is at a loss. Perhaps he shouldn’t have said Yukimura’s name. He thinks about asking Oishi, but it’s already late in Japan. No one else would be helpful, except maybe Sanada, but Sanada is prickly on the subject of Yukimura.

He texts Sanada anyway.

 _Did I do something_ , he says, apropos of nothing, certain that Sanada will know what he’s referring to.

 _He’s happy_ , comes the reply a few minutes later. _And he wants to know if you’ll post something that isn’t food for a change._

Tezuka scrolls through his camera roll for something that isn’t food, but there isn’t much not-food in it, besides the tennis, and somehow he thinks Yukimura doesn’t mean tennis.

Eventually, he settles on one of the first photographs he’d taken upon moving into his apartment.

He likes Mrs. Otto’s cat because it reminds him of Karupin, and of Ryoma, and as if Ryoma is reading his mind his LINE pings with a photo of Karupin. He falls asleep to Ryoma sending him more Karupin pictures, and so doesn’t see the new LINE message until he wakes up.

 _You know, I have a sweet tooth_ , Yukimura says, with a sticker of a cat licking its paws.

 

*

 

Tezuka goes on a dessert-making spree entirely _not_ because of Yukimura, but this fact is (even he secretly admits) highly debatable. They talk on LINE often, mostly about cooking; he’s found a kindred spirit in Yukimura that he hadn’t at all expected. Yukimura sends him pictures of pretty sugary confections that Tezuka can’t possibly hope to make, and Tezuka sends him pictures of cotton candy. Because that’s the limit of his artistry with sugar.

Sometimes, they talk about tennis.

 _How has your shoulder been_ , Yukimura asks one day. Tezuka looks at his phone, not sure how to answer. It’s a sign that they haven’t really spoken since high school, because his shoulder isn’t so much a worry now as long as he remembers to take care with it.

 _Good_ , he says, stops. He doesn’t know what Yukimura is doing now, but he’s sure it isn’t tennis. He would know if Yukimura was in the tennis world. Everyone would know.

There is a long lull in the conversation, enough that Tezuka makes a pot of tea so his hands have something to do. It’s not that he waits around for Yukimura to reply his messages, usually. This time just feels serious, in a way that other times about crepes and panacotta are not.

When Yukimura eventually replies, it’s not what Tezuka expects, and yet it is completely as expected. _We should play a game sometime_.

 _You’re in Japan_. He almost makes it a question.

 _I know_.

And then Yukimura doesn’t reply to him any more, and Tezuka goes to exercise until he can’t move.

 _I said something wrong_ , he texts Sanada from the gym floor. His head coach steps over him, dropping a towel on Tezuka’s face as he goes. Tezuka lies there, feeling the phone vibrate on his chest and working up the nerve to look at it.

But it’s only Fuji. _I heard someone’s favourite dessert is waffles_.

_Are you talking about Yukimura?_

_Who else?_ Fuji sends the same cat-licking-paws sticker that Yukimura had used. _We’re gardening buddies._

Tezuka allows himself another long moment of lying on the floor feeling complicated feelings, then gets up before his coach can lecture him. He should go back to not having Instagram. Reading comments is strangely enjoyable, but handling Yukimura is not. He doesn’t know how Sanada does it (Yanagi, he can understand— Yanagi is Inui’s friend, after all).

He resolves not to think about it.

 

*

 

His resolution lasts about a day.

“I wanted to eat waffles,” Tezuka tells the mirror, but his reflection doesn’t seem convinced. He doesn’t even eat ice cream, and there are five scoops of ice cream on this monstrosity.

His phone dings with a LINE notification.

 _It’s probably not too sweet for me._ It is, of course, Yukimura.

 _I know_ _,_ Tezuka types, and doesn’t know what else to say. He sends it. Yukimura is always with Sanada, he should be used to this sort of thing. Tezuka thinks he is more socially competent than Sanada, anyway.

_Why do you only post food pictures? Everyone else takes selfies once in a while._

I don’t have much to show, he thinks, or, people have looked at him enough already that he wants something else to be on display for a change. Yukimura probably wouldn’t get it.

_I don’t take selfies._

_Take a cute one and I’ll come over to eat your waffles._

You are in Japan, he doesn’t say, and takes the picture.


End file.
